There is a need for a lightweight readily detachable trailer hitch that can be secured to the front or rear bumper of an automobile or light truck for hauling trailers of various types.
A particular problem relates to hauling pleasure boats by trailer. Many people who own pleasure boats today haul the pleasure boats to various attractive water sites by means of trailers which are hitched to the rear of an automobile or a light truck. When the driver reaches the body of water upon which he wishes to launch his boat, he backs the trailer with the boat mounted thereon into the water until the boat can be either floated or slid off the trailer into the water.
There are a number of difficulties associated with launching a pleasure boat into a body of water in this manner. First, particularly in locations where the shore advances into the water at a shallow grade, the trailer must be backed into the water a considerable distance, which oftens means that the rear drive wheels of the automobile or light truck are also backed into the water. Many times, when the driver wishes to move the automobile or light truck forward, he finds that the rear wheels are mired in water logged sand, or there is no traction because algae and other underwater organisms have left a slippery film on the underwater areas of the shore line. The driver then must go to considerable trouble to get his vehicle free of the water. Sometimes, the driver has to go so far as to call a tow truck to pull his vehicle free. This is a considerable nuisance and frequently very expensive, particularly in wilderness recreational areas that are located a considerable distance from service stations that operate tow trucks.
Another difficulty associated with backing the trailer and the boat into a body of water is that by having the trailer hitched to the rear of the automobile or light truck, the driver must drive the vehicle backwards, and in doing so, he must turn his head so that he can look out the rear window of the vehicle. This is awkward. Moreover, many drivers have trouble with backing a trailer attached to the rear of the automobile or truck because in order to make the trailer travel in the direction desired, the front steering wheels of the vehicle must be moved in a direction reversed to the direction normally used to back up the automobile. The driver also tends to become dis-oriented when he twists around in order to look out the rear window of the vehicle and this adds a complicating factor to the tricky task of backing the trailer in the direction desired.